Optimal beam pointing of an aircraft cellular antenna from air-to-ground is a unique challenge. As the aircraft traverses over a ground cellular tower distribution it must decide when and where to point the next beam. The aircraft antenna pointing system may be discontinuous (e.g. limited steps) and the ground cell tower effective isotropic radiated power (ERIP) “contour” a continuous non-linear contour that varies with vantage point between the aircraft and tower.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, an aircraft 100 may be subjected to “hyper” cell-edge scenarios, similar to but at a much larger extent than overlapping heterogeneous cell networks (e.g. as defined by the transmission boundaries of one or more communication towers 104) on the ground. The aircraft 100 may be subject to a continuum of cell-edges at a continuum of distances, RF power levels, and antenna gain levels yielding poor communication of an air-to-ground signal 103 to one or more communication towers 104.